I'm actually in the Ben camp on this one, although I prefer a different mic than the 58. :) I've never had a room mess up the sound of a vocal I was tracking to where I HAD to create or use some sort of booth. I myself have sung in some pretty crappy rooms....up against walls, in corners, in bathrooms....you either have a good voice with the right choice of mic capturing it, or you don't. This is just my opinion of course as well as my own personal experience.
 
But I've always found these booth things to make little or no difference at all no matter how much they cost. I even did a mic shoot-out with mics at different distances. Anything up close, sounds up close and you can't even hear the effects of the room. Even in rooms that sounded like they would be a problem...they didn't mess with the vocal enough to have to plan a strategy or use a booth. OR....maybe it just doesn't matter enough to me because a good vocal take/sound/timbre of the voice is the most important in my world. A little room effect that can't be heard unless the track is solo'd is too meaningless to even discuss really. But that's just me. :)
 
-Danny

Danny, yeah with a tight cardoid pattern, you essentially minimize anything at the sides and rear of the mic. I think the main reason I jumped in on this thread is because some of the things people are trying to build can make things worse than if you had nothing. When I seen that they were using closed back boxes I knew it wasn't good, at least for singing.

That hunk of junk seems like it would create more problems than it solves.   I made a DIY reflection thing for behind my vocal mic because I had the left over materials  (MDF board, Aurelex sheetblock, studio foam, and some fabric) & the time, To me it seems to make the vocal sound a little deeper as it absorbs most of the high frequency reflections but it really doesn't make that much difference.  It makes clients feel good.  That's about it.

So, I'm going to ask a dumb question here. I thought when you are choosing a mic position for a vocal in a room, optimally you should try different rooms and listen to the recordings to hear which room has the best acoustics for singing vocals or even tracking instrument. Then, with in that good sounding room, you should move around until you find the optimal spot for mic placement.

There is a room in my house that has hardwood floors, is large and has an oddly sloped ceiling in several places. Everything I have ever recorded in this room has always sounded better than other spaces in my house from which I have recorded. Unfortunately, it is an extremely high traffic room, always loaded with family members, so I never get to record there. If everyone happens to be away at Grandmas however....

So.....that would lead me to believe that the ambience of the room does matter? Am I just imagining this or are my ears playing tricks on me?

MakeShift
So, I'm going to ask a dumb question here. I thought when you are choosing a mic position for a vocal in a room, optimally you should try different rooms and listen to the recordings to hear which room has the best acoustics for singing vocals or even tracking instrument. Then, with in that good sounding room, you should move around until you find the optimal spot for mic placement.

There is a room in my house that has hardwood floors, is large and has an oddly sloped ceiling in several places. Everything I have ever recorded in this room has always sounded better than other spaces in my house from which I have recorded. Unfortunately, it is an extremely high traffic room, always loaded with family members, so I never get to record there. If everyone happens to be away at Grandmas however....

So.....that would lead me to believe that the ambience of the room does matter? Am I just imagining this or are my ears playing tricks on me?

Mike, it depends on the mic as well as how close you are. When I close mic something, the only way I can hear enough effects from the room is when I solo up the track....and even there, it's never anything detrimental to the track. When you can literally hear the room in your track without it solo'd, THEN the room is contributing. But like I said...in MY personal experience, 2-4 inches away from a mic (if you choose to get up that close) shouldn't introduce any room effects that destroy your track. Even 6 inches shouldn't bring on anything that is too severe. But again....if you use a mic that can pick up two gnats getting it on in another room, you *may* hear something. But I never had any problems with any mic in any room while up close...that's all I meant to say brother. :)
 
-Danny

As I was thinking about this thread the other day  a thought crossed my mind that had me asking some more questions... mics are mounted in all kinds of ways..all the way from on a simple stand pointed towards a singer at maybe a 60 degree angle to a condenser mounted upside down and hanging vertically at a 90 degree angle to the singer. The descriptions of polar patterns on mics usually specifically indicate the behavior of the pattern of the mic  and never take into consideration how the mic might be mounted and how that might affect the sound. If you adjust a cardoid mic at a 60 degree angle and sing down into it, then it primarily picks up the singer and probably a corner of the ceiling/wall. Not many vocalists sing into a dynamic mic at a true 90 degrees, and if they did , they would likely be perpendicular to a wall so the sounds the mic picks up will be different...so the angle you point the mic at might be critical in some instances, right?  If anything, diffusion can help to stop reflections from ever reaching a back wall. Uneven surfaces = better diffusion and I'm guessing is the reason the irregular shaped ceiling helps Mikes recording.
 
The really bad rooms I have heard have almost a slapback effect. If you clap your hands in a space like that the sound is radiating out in all directions uncontrolled...but vocals don't radiate out in the same way...vocals are directional to a large extent. I think getting set up to let that work to my advantage could help......do you agree?

A bad room is a bad room.  Those portable foam shields will only help with a very close sound source of a few inches.   If you plan on only singing from an constant and exact 3 inches in front of a capsule, you may have no trouble hiding the effects of a terrible space, especially when surrounded by other noisy musical elements.  However, a singer with good technique will vary their distance and angle in the microphone to compensate for volume and other performance needs.  In this case it is extremely important that the room be well controlled or taken completely out of the equation (ie completely dead).  
 
My personal suggestion would be to test the room/vocal at a distance of around 3 feet.  If a sensitive microphone can sound good at that distance in the room you are in, then you shouldn't have many problems at 3-12 inches.  

Maybe I will try my singing in an oven in the future. Not on of course!

 
 

IMO: That box in the youtube video is terrible... A complete waste of $23 if you ask me.
 
He says the "narration during the tutorial" is all done through the Blue Yeti Mic in that box.... Is it just me - as soon as the tutorial started I could HEAR the hollowness of the box... His voice sounded better at the beginning of the video than when he was doing the tutorial.

Ever since I heard a recording of my wife's voice captured in a room exactly like this - only with better gear - with absolutely NO room treatment, sound absorption, not even a reflexion filter, I realized that you didn't always needed to agonize over the room...
 

 
Personally, I hated my voice in that room. I tried all kinds of things with carpets and towels and furniture to get a better sound. The improvements were totally subjective. The biggest problem was, uh, my voice.
 
Profesional singers, people who are in perfect control of their instrument, like my wife and the guy recording the session, seemed to be able to record a stunning performance even in such a glass cage. 
 
Incidentally - that guy's set up was placed directly against the windows, in the corner, with the monitors inches from the actual window. None of that prevented him from releasing an incredible final mix of that performance, without even anything like ARC...